Thursday, May 24, 2012

The Importance of 10

Yesterday, I posted about effective fact practice. Developing automaticity with addition and subtraction facts begins with subitizing, which is why it's so important that our Kinder babies get a lot of practice with that skill. The next building building block is knowing combinations for 5 and 10. If a student has instant recall of 3 + 7, it sets the stage for knowing 4 + 7. That's the idea behind teaching facts with a strategy-based approach. Here's a quick and easy little workstation using ordinary playing cards (remove the face cards) to practice combinations for 10. Notice that by using the playing cards and ten-frames, it is a representational (from CRA) activity, which is better for conceptual understanding that abstract flash cards.

LOL! We actually have names for each friend. 1,9 straight backs, 2,8 curvy heads, 3,7 swingers and when we write it on the board we hang the 7 off the 3, 4 and 6 connectors... We make a 4 and go straight into a 6,5,5 twins0,10 the zero heroes Kids love the names and love drawing them, and it's amazing how something so simple helps them remember this skill!!!!

I have stumbled upon your blog.... I WOULD BUY A BOOK with all your ideas in it! Thank you for getting my creative summer mind working! Your math activities blend beautifully with Number Literacy! Thank you!

Love this!! Any chance that you'll create a second version where you turn over two cards, color that number with one color, and use another color to complete the two ten-frames? This would be a good fit for my higher math students.